The present invention generally relates to both local exchanges and private branch exchanges situated and connected within a telephone network. The present invention more particularly relates to communicating information, for example, an audible branding-type message, to a caller via the receiver on a telephone set within a telephone network.
With passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 into law, Congress thereby attempted to promote competition amongst local telephone companies and also reduce regulation. In this way, Congress hoped to secure both lower prices and higher quality services for American telephone service subscribers. To help increase competition, particularly on the local level in certain highly-populated metropolitan areas, the Act generally required existing local telephone companies, referred to as “incumbent local exchange carriers” (ILECs), to lease and share their local loops and certain related phone service equipment to new start-up local telephone companies, referred to as “competitive local exchange carriers” (CLECs), who sought to enter into the telecommunications market. The theory behind such legislation was that the new start-up local telephone companies would, over time, eventually wean themselves away from leasing and utilizing the existing local telephone companies” local loops and phone service equipment by building and installing their own loops and equipment. In this way, according to theory, new local telephone companies would ultimately build and develop new state-of-the-art phone systems and related services that would eventually fully and successfully compete with those being provided by existing local telephone companies.
Soon after the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, many new start-up local telephone companies did indeed quickly emerge. Although many of these new local telephone companies failed to weather the “telecom bust” of late 2000 and early 2001, some have survived. Hence, a modest increase in competition amongst local telephone companies to attract both commercial and residential telephone service subscribers has indeed been realized in some geographical areas. Given such local competition in these areas, however, it is often inapparent to a phone service subscriber or caller when picking up the receiver of a telephone set which local telephone company is actually providing him with the audible dial tone through the receiver (i.e., local telephone service).
In order to eliminate any confusion within a caller's mind as to the actual identity of his local telephone service provider, uniquely adapting the commercially known practice of “branding” to inform or remind a caller of the identity of his local telephone service provider seems to be a viable potential solution. Branding, in particular, is a practice within the telecommunications industry wherein the commercial identity of a service provider is audibly communicated to a caller through the receiver of a telephone phone set. Branding has been especially and commonly utilized to identify long distance carriers. For example, if a person were to dial a long distance phone number from a hotel room, that person generally would not know the actual identity of the long distance telephone company that is carrying or servicing his call. When, however, an audible branding message such as “Thank you for using [long distance phone company name]” is communicated to the person through the receiver of the telephone set that he is using, the person then affirmatively knows the identity of the long distance telephone company that is servicing his call.
If the commercial practice of branding were to be uniquely adapted to inform a caller as to the identity of his local telephone service provider, the ideal time to communicate an audible branding-type message to the caller would be just after the caller takes the receiver of his telephone set off-hook. In this way, as the caller initially puts the receiver to his ear to listen for a dial tone before dialing a desired phone number, the caller would be briefly informed or reminded of the identity of his local telephone service provider. If such a branding timing scheme were to be adopted, however, there looms the problem of possibly interfering with the operation of a modem should a modem, instead of a human being, take on the role of caller. For example, if a modem associated with either a personal computer (PC) or a facsimile (fax) machine were to initially take a phone line off-hook for the intended purpose of thereafter sending data signals through the phone line to an intended recipient, any audible branding-type message that would be automatically communicated to the modem upon taking the phone line off-hook may potentially interfere with the operation of the modem. In particular, a typical modem is set up to operate on a “wait for dial tone” (WFDT) basis so that when the modem takes a phone line off-hook (i.e., picks up a phone line), the modem specifically waits and “listens” for a dial tone before dialing the phone number of its intended recipient of data. Thus, if such a modem were to take a phone line off-hook and wait for a dial tone, any audible brandingtype message received at that point in time may potentially and undesirably (1) “confuse” the modem and cause it to hang up the phone line, (2) cause the modem to lock up, or (3) force the modem to wait until the message is completely finished before allowing the modem to “hear” a clear dial tone and proceed to dial.
In light of the above, there is a present need in the art for a method and/or system that can audibly communicate information, for example, information identifying a local telephone service provider, to a caller on a telephone network without interfering with the operation of modems that are activated on a “wait for dial tone” (WFDT) basis.